Fading Scars
by Don'tThinkAllDay
Summary: "You might have scars but i have scars too. they might be there now but if you let me in- let me help you -they can fade and so can mine." when Peggy contacts SHIELD asking a favor of Steve, tensions rise as Avengers Tower is changed forever.
1. Chapter 1

It's a strange day when nothing's happening at Stark Tower. Or Avengers Tower if you know it by its _new_ name, so normally it's not a good sign when the building is eerily quiet, mainly because six of America's best superheroes live there. Yup, after the battle against Loki in Manhattan, Tony extended the invitation to live in Stark Tower -That was originally for Bruce- to the other Avengers. He used the reasoning that it would be too hard and take too long to assemble themselves in times of trouble when they were literally _planets_ away. So they all agreed, even Thor, who only came once he was positive that Loki was properly locked away in Asgard.

Even if there wasn't some sort of plot to destroy the world being foiled, there was at least _something_ happening in the home of the heroes. Normally there were loud noises coming from Tony's workshop, or sometimes, the construction workers there to fix the destroyed top floor of Stark Tower could hear the combined laughter of Tony, Bruce, Clint and Natasha as they tried teaching Steve and Thor modern pop culture because they just didn't get it, but not today.

No, today the six heroes were in the board room that pretty much made up the fourth floor of the building, along with their guest of the evening, Agent Fury. Yeah, you _know_ there is something serious being discussed when he comes around. So instead of the casual meeting area of the living room or the bar, they "assembled" in the board room, all six of them sitting around the table with Fury pacing the length of the room, strangely similar to many of their meetings on the air ship. Everyone waited for Fury to start talking, but he was taking his time pacing and glaring at the Iron Man paraphernalia lining the walls.

Finally he stopped walking and turned to the table. He pulled something rectangular out of his jacket pocket, an envelope, and tossed it onto the middle of the table. "This," he started "was sent to your _fan mail_ address." He scoffed at the words 'fan mail'; he hated the idea, which had come to light once the Avengers finally realized (after hundreds of elementary school classes sent them "thanks for saving the world" letters) that the population of New York knew their address. Yes, it is very hard to miss Stark Tower but they didn't know anyone knew the _exact_ address until that moment. So Tony had opened a PO box through SHEILD so they could get letters but through a second source, which could check for any dangerous or suspicious activity, which they obviously had found in the envelope laying address side up on the table.

"Don't deny the fact that it was a good idea." Tony said leaning forward to grab the envelope. "Because obviously you are using it to stalk our personal lives even more than you do, so it's beneficial to everyone, we keep our albeit _almost nonexistent_ private lives to ourselves, and you get to stalk all the people who stalk us to guarantee no one is planning to kill us in our sleep." He said pointing the envelope in Fury's direction before he turned to read the name. "Oh, Cap it's for you," He finished, handing it to Steve who was sitting in the chair on Tony's right.

Steve raised his eyebrow at the envelope, then at Fury. "It's already open I see…" he said, plucking the paper from Tony's hand and pulled out the neatly folded lined paper and unfolded it, letting a photo flutter onto the polished wood of the table. Steve read the letter relatively quickly. Once he was done, he stared blankly at the photo lying innocently next to the paper. Everyone remained silent, waiting for him to speak. When he finally did, his voice was stony and hollow. "Why didn't you tell me she was still alive?" He demanded, not looking up from the image in his hand.

"Who's still alive?" Bruce asked, leaning forward against his elbows, trying to get a look at the paper. His curiosity was shown in the faces of the other four sitting around them, but the paper was sitting so only Steve, and Tony if he scooted closer, could see the name at the bottom of the page.

"Peggy," was all Steve said. "Peggy Carter."

"Who's…?" Clint started, but Fury cut him off answering the unfinished question almost on reflex.

"Peggy Carter is Steve's old 'girlfriend'," Fury said, starting to pace again as he spoke. "Who everyone assumed to be dead because by now she would be well into her 90s. But now we, or Steven, received a letter, from someone who claims to be Peggy, begging him to come to this hospital to see her."

"No one is claiming anything." Steven snapped, one balled up fist hitting the table, making Natasha -who was on his immediate right- jump. "It's Peggy. I know it." He said, tossing the picture in the middle of the table, where the envelope sat a short while ago. "This picture is from my file from the Army. There's only one, and she had access to my file." Fury rolled his eyes as Natasha grabbed the picture to look at it more closely.

"Steve, think for a second. The times have changed since 1942. It's so easy to replicate a picture now, there are probably thousands of copies of that picture floating around."

"It's _her._" Steve yelled standing up, his hands balled into fists at his sides. "The letter says "You still owe me that dance" she is the _only_ one that knows about our plan before I hit the ice alright? And that picture is from my file. It has my quadrant stamped on the corner." He snapped, pointing at the picture still in Natasha's hand.

"Steve. This person wants to see you,_ alone_. It could be a trap, they could've just-"

"It is _not _a trap!" Steve yelled, this time making everyone jump. His fists now were clenched so tightly that the skin was white against the bone. "You're wrong. It's her I know it. And I'm going to see her. The letter seems, desperate. She might need my help. And I swear to the good Lord if you try telling me that I'm now not allowed to _help_ people…"

"Steve," Natasha whispered, standing up next to him and putting one of his fists into both of her hands and started to rub it slowly, relaxing him slowly. "Just relax okay? No one is trying to tell you you're not allowed to help people. We're just worried. What if, and I know that you don't want to hear this, but just hear me out. What if, her age got the better of her and she died, and someone got a hold of her belongings and _is_ trying to lure you somewhere and hurt you because they know you'll go because you probably have the biggest heart in the world. That's something we love about you, but sometimes people are going to take advantage of it and we don't want you to get hurt." During her whole speech Steve had listened, and his breathing had gone from angry and shallow, to somewhat calmer and deeper. He looked at Natasha with a heart breaking look in his soft blue eyes, and he nodded. Everyone watched silently, waiting for what he was going to say next.

"I'm still going." He murmured. "I'm not going to just sit around waiting for someone to tell me that she needed help and I wasn't there. And even if it is someone pretending to be her. I can take them." He said. Natasha nodded.

"Okay fine. But we're all going with you." She said, looking around at the other Avengers. They all nodded, and finally Fury sighed.

"Fine. But if you all die. I'm going to your funerals and saying 'I told you so.'" He said before walking out of the room. Everyone stared at the door staying silent, unsure about what to do next, until finally Tony stood up and clapped his hands.

"Road trip! I'm driving."

* * *

It turns out that, surprisingly, not everyone could fit into Tony's two seater convertible, or really any of the sports cars in his garage. So Tony opted to take Steve and lead the other car – Clint's black SUV – to the hospital. As they drove, Tony kept trying to get Steve to crack a smile, or to at least tell him to shut up or _something_. But he didn't. He just looked out around the street as the trees and scenery went flying by. Tony kept looking at his companion out of the corner of his eye. "You nervous to see someone from before?" He asked. _That_ got Steve's attention. He nodded, still looking away.

"Mostly the fact that it's _her._" He said. "We…." Then he trailed off. Tony raised his eyebrows.

"What, did you have a one night stand or something?" He asked in true Tony fashion. Steve looked at him.

"No. No we didn't." He said; he didn't learn a lot from Tony when he came back from his frozen state, but he did quickly catch on to the sexual terms that Tony likes to throw around. Tony saw that Steve had the 'don't talk about this anymore' look on his face so he dropped the topic and continued the rest of the drive in complete silence, only broken by AC/DC on the radio.

The hospital that was at the address given to Steve was somewhere in Long Island, they walked into the lobby and went straight up to the front desk. The others hung back and let Steve do the talking. "Hi," He said, greeting the nurse with his usual big "all American boy" smile. "I'm looking for a Peggy Carter? She said she's admitted here?" He asked. The nurses behind the table, obviously enraptured by his face just smiled at him before looking into the computer to figure out the room assigned.

One younger nurse leaned over the table and smiled at him, her body situated so if Steve looked straight down he'd see inside her shirt. But Steve just looked straight ahead, until she grabbed his tie, then he looked her in the eye. "You know, I have a break in about twenty minutes if you wanted to go you know…" she finished winking and biting her lip. Steve was about to answer, was about to say that no he actually _didn't_ know (what he was honest!) when suddenly someone slapped the metal of the desk.

"I believe the man asked you about a patient, not about how to fulfill you're crazy college girl fantasies." The somewhat angry voice of Anthony Stark barked from where he now was, which was standing right next to Steve. The tone of his voice surprised everyone, but the look on his face, something that looked like a mix of anger and something else that Steve couldn't pin point, is what made the young nurse stand back up and walk away. By now the only person that wasn't staring at Tony incredulously was the nurse sitting behind the computer. Tony looked around. "What?" he demanded before he walked over to his spot in a plastic waiting room chair between Natasha and Bruce.

Steve just shook his head, still confused and turned back to the nurse, who was now looking concerned at the computer screen. "I'm sorry Mr. Rogers, but there is no one with the name Carter here." She said looking up at him. "Do you think you have the wrong last name?" Steve shook his head.

"No I'm positive; the name I'm looking for is Peggy Carter." He said shaking his head and looking down. _Was Fury right? Was the letter actually a fake? _He thought. Everyone else could sense it too, because He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Steve," It was Bruce. He had a finalized tone in his voice, as if to say that it was time to go, when the hospital doors opened with their customary _whoosh_-ing noise and they all turned, mostly because Thor was standing right in the way of the entrance and if Clint hadn't moved him then the person trying to get in, a girl about seventeen years old, would've run straight into him.

The girl that had just walked in however, didn't really notice, since she walked straight up to the nurse's station and started signing a clipboard. The nurse by the computer looked up and smiled at her. "Hello Caden, staying the night tonight?" She asked. The girl, whose name apparently was Caden, looked up and smiled too.

"Yeah I am, just got out of dance class, that's why I'm so la-" She started before looking around and _finally_ noticing who was standing in the waiting room, and who was standing at the counter. Her jaw dropped only slightly, and she blinked at Steve for about thirty seconds before she spoke. "You're…you're Steve Rogers?" She asked; her eyes still wide and the sentence ending as a question. Steve smiled tightly.

"Yeah that's me," he said, before turning back around. Caden's eyes moved from Steve to everyone else who was sitting around watching her the same way.

"You got her letter? She didn't' think…" She started. Tony stood up suddenly

"Who's letter?" He asked, expecting the answer, but not sure why.

"My Great grandmother's…Peggy?" She asked looking at Steve. "She said she sent you a…" That was when the nurse looked up.

"Oh Peggy? She's not in as Peggy Carter; she's in as Peggy Burke."

"Carter's her maiden name…" Caden started. Steve turned and stared at the teenage girl in front of him.

"So you know her?" He asked. Caden nodded.

"She's my great grandmother." She repeated. Then she took a quick head count and then turned to the nurse. "I can take them up." She said, and then she turned to the group in front of her. "She wants to talk to all of you. Follow me."


	2. 2: Long Time Coming

Caden led the six adults down a hallway and through two sets of double doors to get to an elevator bank and she had pushed the up button before Steve, who had been staring at the back of her head the whole journey, finally spoke up. "How," he started, and then he looked around at his friends and realized that he would rather have this conversation in semi privacy. So he stepped forward and stood next to her, out of everyone else's earshot "How is she?" He asked turning to look at her. She looked up at him.

"Gran? She's...been better." She said, looking up at him somewhat apologetically. "Do you; want to see a picture of her? So you're not...shocked?" She asked.

"Please," Steve said, nodding quickly. Caden pulled out her iPhone and went into her photo section. She brought up a photo before turning the phone towards Steve. A picture of Caden standing in a ballet costume with her arm around a small, white haired woman. She was the same Peggy, he could tell. Maybe not in appearance, but in the proud smile she had on her face. Her eyes were the same rich brown color too. Steve smiled down at the photo and then looks at Caden. "What's….what's wrong with her? Why is she here?" Caden didn't answer until everyone was on the elevator and she had punched the '4' button with her thumb.

"COPD," She said. "It's a type of lung disease," She continued to explain, not waiting to see if anyone didn't know what it was. Steve nodded.

"How long as she had it?" He asked. Caden had to stop and think about that.

"I think she developed it a little while after you uh…disappeared. But it got worse recently. She's hooked up to a portable oxygen tank, just so you know, that's a new thing, but I didn't want to scare you when you saw it." She continued as the elevator doors opened and she led them down another hall. She kept talking as she walked, stopping to wave at familiar faces.

"She kind of got into the habit of smoking later in her career, and all the people she worked with smoked, usually cigars, so the second hand smoke got kind of bad." She said finally stopping in front of a closed door. She looked around at all of the people that had taken the journey with her, five of them remaining silent the whole journey. "Ready to meet Peggy Burke?" She asked. They all nodded and she opened the door slowly, knocking as she did. "Gran?" She asked quietly as she walked in. "I've got some visitors here to see you," She continued, motioning for the heroes to follow her, Steve going in first, the other five trailing behind. An old woman sitting up in a hospital bed, looking out the window. She smiled shakily at her great granddaughter, and then she looked over Caden's shoulder, and smiled a little bigger.

"I knew you'd come," She said, her British accent still prominent. Caden smiled a little and went to the other corner of the room and grabbed a chair, setting it next to the bed. Peggy placed a hand on top of her's. Caden looked at her great grandmother.

"What's up Gran? What do you need?" She asked. Peggy just smiled.

"I think I need to speak to Steve alone for a while, if you don't mind." She said. Caden nodded

"What? Oh yeah sure of course Gran, we all can, go…somewhere." She said kissing her great grandmother's forehead before looking to Steve, showing him to the chair. He smiled gratefully at the teenager before she turned to the five others. "You guys want to go get some pizza or something?" She asked. They all shrugged and nodded, walking out of the room. Once the door shut behind Thor for the second time – he got his cape caught in the door the first time – Steve turned to Peggy and placed one of his hands over her small frail one.

"I can't believe you're still…_alive_," He said finally. Peggy chuckled and shook her head stiffly.

"Just barely Steve," She said; her accented voice hoarse with age. "I don't have a lot of time left." She started. Steve shook his head.

"No, no Pegs don't say stuff like that." He said, she smiled sadly, shaking her head.

"Like what? The truth? Steve, not everyone looks like you in their early 90s." She said. Steve couldn't help but smile. Peggy smiled too. "But tell me how you are. I haven't seen you in seventy years." That made him chuckle.

"I've been frozen for pretty much most of that time, but I'm good otherwise. Great actually, I have some good friends, even if some of them didn't start out as friends." He said, thinking back to his first meeting with Tony Stark. "But tell me about your life. Your great granddaughter seems like a nice girl..." He said. She smiled.

"Yes, Caden's a beautiful girl, sweetheart too. Avid dancer, don't know what part of the family she got that from," She said chuckling. Then she got serious. "I waited," she said, looking down at their hands, well his hand because his covered her hand completely. "Three and a half years. I went on a few expeditions with Howard, hoping you would pop up somewhere. But after a while we lost funding for them, and we couldn't go out to look anymore. They called it a lost cause, that you were gone for good. I couldn't believe it. _Didn't _believe it for a long time too, but a part of my heart told me I had to move on, you wouldn't want us to stop living just because you did. I met Charlie, my husband, through work. He was an air force pilot. We hit it off I guess you could say."

"Did you love him?" Steve asked quietly. Peggy nodded.

"I did, I do…but there's always that part of my heart that always loved you even though…" She stopped to cough lightly, not continuing her sentence, but continuing on with her story. "We had two beautiful daughters, Joan and Penny, they gave me three grandchildren. Joan had the twins Brad and Brianne, and then Penny had Juliet. I love my family, with all of my heart, and we're all so close to each other, but some choices in the past caused issues." She stopped again, coughing longer this time. Steve stood and grabbed a small cup from next to the jug of water. He handed it to her, and she drank it slowly, when she put the cup down, Steve took the opportunity to ask a simple question.

"What…kind of choices?" He asked. She sighed, looking out the window as she continued.

"Brianne's husband Harry," She said, her face turning serious. "Was the biggest mistake of her life. He is a terrible man with terrible anger. He's controlling and very _very_ sexist. He believes that women are only around to make babies, and when Brianne was pregnant, he was hoping and praying for a boy, and when their daughter was born, he had a problem with her from birth.

"The problem grew because Brianne, probably the only women who had ever stayed with him long enough to have a child," She said, laughing bitterly, "died during child birth. So here he was, no wife, no son and no person to leave his child with to go out and get drunk, which was a well-loved pastime of his. So he got angry.

"Caden Jae was raised in an angry home. Her father did not try to hide the fact that he didn't like her. And when she was seven…he started hitting her." She said, turning to look at Steve as they shared a glance of pure anger. Peggy knew that Steve was not the type of person for any type of violence without cause. When he squeezed her hand, she continued. "She came to visit me and my daughter one day when she was thirteen with three bruises on her face. We asked her what happened and she told us she fell down a flight of stairs.

"We were suspicious and we had Brad, her uncle, look into it a little bit. He walked into their house in the middle of Harry pulling a gun out of his pocket and putting the barrel on Caden's forehead. Brad got her out of there as soon as he could and Harry was arrested that night, he got three years. He was recently released from jail with a restraining order given to him. He's not allowed within 100 feet of Caden, which means that, because our family is so close and her god parents are friends of Harry's, it's unsafe for her to stay with any of them, so she moved in with me." Steve nodded.

"Right…Pegs, I've loved seeing you, but…why am I here? Why did you want to tell me all this?" He asked. Peggy shook her head, looking around the room.

"I don't have a lot of time left Steve. Maybe a week, two if I'm lucky. But I know that as soon as I die, she's going to be thrown into the world alone. I can't let that happen. She's too close to 18, I'm not letting her go into foster care, she can't get attached to a family only to be thrown out after a year." She continued, looking up at Steve with her brown eyes holding an emotion close to hopeful. "Steve, I need her to be in a place where I know she'll be safe. I want you to tell me what place in the world is safer than with Captain America and the rest of the Avengers." Steve stared at her wide eyed.

"Peggy, _anywhere_ is safer. Peggy, we have to go out and battle almost everything that tries to _kill _us." He continued, but Peggy cut him off.

"And I know that, but I also know that you know how to keep civilians safe. Steve please, you're the only one I thought of and you're the only one that will protect her." Steve sat there for a minute, looking at Peggy, then he nodded.

"Alright. Alright okay. I'll do it for you but we need to discuss it with everyone else…" He started. Peggy smiled.

"Steve, thank you. So much. You don't know how much this means to me." She said, pulling Steve closer to kiss him on the cheek. Steve smiled.

"Of course Peggy." He said, sitting back a little on his chair.

"So, was that your "special friend" I saw today?" She asked, smiling a little mischievously. Steve looked at her confused.

"Natasha? No, no, she's a sweet girl but no. She's with Clint." Peggy shook her head.

"No Steve, I'm not talking about the woman." She said, sitting up a little more with the help of Steve. Steve looked at her quizzically. She sighed. "I always knew there was a reason you couldn't talk to women…" She started

* * *

Caden took Steve's spot in Tony's sports car as he led the SUV to the nearest diner. As they walked out to the car, Tony couldn't help but stare at the girl with him. Caden looked at him, a little freaked out. "What's up…?" She asked. Tony shook his head.

"Nothing, you just look…really familiar for some reason…" He said. She shrugged.

"I dunno where I'd be familiar from…" She said as she looked out towards the space around them, similar to the way Steve did minutes before hand. Tony shrugged

"Hmm, I don't know either…maybe I was mistaken." He finished as they pulled into the parking lot of the diner, Tony getting out of the car and making his way towards Bruce, some sort of science discussion obviously continuing. Thor and Clint had moved into the diner already, but Natasha was making her way towards Caden.

"I'm Natasha," She said, smiling warmly at the girl. Caden smiled back.

"Caden, Caden Jae, some people call me CJ." She said, walking in step with Natasha and finding the boys in a round corner booth, Thor and Clint having a water chugging contest. Natasha rolled her eyes and slid in next to Clint, flicking his head, making him spit out half the water.

"Tasha!" He complained, grabbing a handful of napkins from the dispenser in the middle and wiping the table and his chin. Natasha just shrugged and laughed and Clint just wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed the side of her head.

The young waitress came up almost immediately to hand the menus around, when she walked away, Tony smirked. "She was totally checking me out." Everyone around them laughed except for Natasha, who just shook her head.

"Still chasing after the ladies are we?" She asked, looking through the options, not looking at Tony, but the plastic list hid a smirk from everyone but Clint. Tony looked confused.

"Uhhh, yes why Natasha?" He asked. Natasha glanced up at him quickly, and then she looked back down.

"Nothing, I just thought your attitude towards the playboy lifestyle would change after being around all of us…" she said shrugging. Tony shrugged, not understanding the exact meaning of what she was saying, but just ignoring it and ordering his food. After the waitress, after taking their orders, and having Thor repeat his three entrée lunch four times to be sure he was getting that much food, walked away Clint turned towards Caden.

"So, tell us about yourself, besides the fact that you're Peggy's great granddaughter." He said. Caden had to think for a second, pulling the straw in her root beer out of her mouth before speaking.

"Well, my name's Caden Jae Baker, everyone calls me CJ or Caden, I just turned 17, and I'm a competitive dancer in lyrical and ballet, but I do all different types of dancing and have been since I was three." She said shrugging.

"So you're close to Peggy?" Bruce asked, leaning forward to watch what Tony was doing under the table from out of the corner of his eye. Once Caden gave her full name, Tony was typing instructions into his phone, Jarvis receiving them instantly. She nodded.

"Well I mean, she's my legal guardian, we live together…until well, she got put into the hospital, now I stay at a friend's house."

"So you're parents, did they die?" Natasha asked solemnly, Caden shook her head.

"My mom did, during child birth, didn't get a chance to meet her, wish I could've. My dad was in jail for three years." She said flatly. The waitress came then with their orders and they waited to continue the conversation after she left.

"Why did your father receive that punishment?" Thor chimed in, his mouth already full of half of a burger. Caden looked at her food and moved her fork around the plate, shifting the salad around.

"Child abuse, it got intense, he got three years, I got sent to Gran." She said. Her voice was final, like she wasn't going to talk about it anymore, so they all dropped it. Well, besides Tony.

As everyone started talking about pop culture and current events, Tony, for probably the first time ever in his life, stayed quiet. His fingers running across the screen of his tablet quickly under the table, receiving all of Jarvis' research in real time, and inspecting it all.

When he read the last article he received, he stared up at Caden in a sort of shocked awe.


	3. 3: Deaths and Realizations

Steve brought up what Peggy had asked him over their dinner of cold Chinese leftovers. Everyone agreed that it was a good idea to take the girl in, until that is, Jarvis said there was an incoming call from Fury. Obviously they had to take it. "So, tell me about "Peggy"." He said, rolling his eyes when he used quotation marks with his hands around the name Peggy. He still thought the whole thing was a hoax. Steve explained the situation, waiting for Fury's nod of approval or _anything_ besides what he got next.

"Absolutely not." He said. Everyone stared at him.

"Uhm, and why not?" Steve asked, already on his last nerve. He was exhausted and didn't want to argue with Fury, but he refused to go against his promise to Peggy.

"What if something happens? We go under another attack? She'll be a liability." Clint scoffed.

"Fury, when there's an attack _everyone's_ a liability. She'll just be a safely protected one." Fury shook his head again.

"Why should you go out of your way to take her in? Doesn't she have a family? One that can take care of her for a year before she leaves?" It was Tony that spoke up this time. He had come out of his workshop about a half hour previous, not working on any sort of tool, but reading all the articles Jarvis found for him.

"She's the little girl from the Burke case Fury." He said looking straight at him. Steve looked confused, Thor did too, Bruce was scratching his head, trying to remember if he knew what they were talking about, and Natasha and Clint had horrified looks on their faces. Fury's face was, like always, completely stoic, but Tony could see the glint of the same thing in Clint and Natasha's eyes, in Fury's one.

"Alright then," he said. "You can take her in." He promptly ended the call before anyone else could say anymore.

Once that was over, Steve still had the bewildered look on his face. "What's happening? What case? Why did he agree that quickly?" Tony sighed.

"Steve, come with me okay?" He asked, placing a hand on his shoulder and leading him out towards his workshop. Steve followed behind Tony in a daze, part of his brain still going over the whole issue of what had happened that day, the other observing the fact that Tony's hand was softly circled around his wrist. He wasn't complaining about anything, just observing, and wondering at how…_nice_ it felt.

He quickly snapped back from that thought, wondering what that thought meant. Then his brain went back to Peggy and what she said earlier.

_There was always a reason why you could never talk to women…_

Was Peggy implying what he _thought_ she was implying? Had Peggy read through him, realized that he had been wondering the same thing for the past few weeks now. It hadn't just popped into his mind, if that's what you're thinking. He didn't wake up one morning thinking "could there be the possibility that I like men?" It had actually first popped into his mind when Natasha suggested as a Friday night activity type thing they should write down questions and put them in a hat, then pass the hat around and answer them. Steve had pulled the question "what do you look most for in a girl," (there was a matching one in there for Natasha, but since there were five guys…) and Steve couldn't think of anything. He had sat in bed that night wondering into the small hours of the morning.

But now as he walks next to Tony down the seemingly never ending hallway, all he can think about his how it feels nice, having his hand there, and maybe he did have feelings there…but he didn't know. He was freaking Steve Rogers; he barely knew anything anymore. He did have to constantly remind himself though that he now lived in a time that was much more open than the forties. It wasn't illegal anymore, he could love a man…he just needed to talk to Natasha, she always knew about relationship stuff.

He let himself be led to the room where Tony spent many sleep deprived nights setting up new suits or doing research in one of his sports cars, like he had been doing today. He sat in the driver's seat of his red Acura. Steve didn't know what to do so he hesitantly sat in the passenger seat of the car next to Tony. When he sat down Tony called for Jarvis to start bring down the screen, and when he did, a replica of what Tony's computer screen looked like.

Article upon article stacked on top of each other in some sort of organized chaos. Many of the things on the screen had Caden's picture emblazoned on them. Tony shifted through some unnecessary ones and stopped at the one with the title: _The Court vs. Burke._ He turned to Steve and let him read it for himself. The look of pure anger on his face was strange. Like it shouldn't have been there. "Steve…" Tony said hesitantly. He hadn't said anything, and it was starting to worry Tony. Steve turned to Tony

"How could he _do _something like this? And to his own family." He asked, incredulous anger etched onto his face. Tony shrugged.

"Parents can just be horrible." He said, looking away quickly. But then he snapped his head back up and asked Jarvis to bring the screen back up as he got out of the car. "That's pretty much everything about the case that you need to know." He said, leading Steve to his workbench. "Now I have some sketches of what her room can look like…"

* * *

The call came three weeks later, after Tony finished the room, with the help of Dummy, Jarvis and mostly Natasha and Steve although everyone tried to help. They were eating pizza out of the cardboard box it came in around the kitchen table. Everyone was laughing at Clint who was trying to imitate Thor eating by shoving two pieces in his mouth at the same time, when Jarvis' voice brought everything to silence. "Mr. Rogers, there is a nurse from St. Henry's Hospital on the line for you." Everyone turned to Steve, not saying a word.

He got up slowly and left the room to answer the phone in the living room. The call was short, and he came back into the room with his hands in his jeans pockets and a somber look on his face. "She's gone." He whispered. "Died last night." Natasha's eyes filled up with tears and ran into Steve to hug him tightly. Steve had unshed tears in his eyes, but he wasn't crying. He was grateful for the few weeks he got to see her, having gone every other day to the hospital to stop and say hi, and to take Caden out to lunch or something to attempt to get to know her. They had learned a lot, learning that besides dance, Caden played the guitar as well as the piano and sang, and she and Steve shared a passion for drawing and art. Peggy had told her the plan and she was ready to move in with them, excited even, or so she told Steve.

But he had come back into this world thinking everyone he had known and loved had died, and he had taken awhile to adjust to that, but he had adapted, but then someone throws Peggy back at him like dangling a carrot in front of a horse, and then ripping it away as the soonest moment hit him hard. But he didn't cry. Not yet at least.

"Does she know?" Bruce asked as Natasha moved from Steve's arms to Clint's awaiting ones. Steve looked up, nodding.

"Yeah, Caden's there right now." He said, running a hand through her hair. "Good timing Tony," he mumbled. "With finishing the room I mean, than you for getting that done quickly." He said. Tony nodded solemnly. "She's uh...going to stay with her friend, until the funeral then she's going to come here the next day." He said before excusing himself and going to hide out in his room, too much had been running through his mind these past couple weeks and too much had been happening. He did what he always did at a time like this.

He sat at his desk with all his materials, and drew into the night.

* * *

When Steve walked out of the room, everyone stayed seated and silent around the table. "Poor guy," Bruce finally said, ending the silence with two solitary words. Everyone nodded.

"I mean, to have something taken away from you, and then given back, to be taken away again so quickly…It must be terrible." Natasha said, leaning closer to Clint, who squeezed her tighter. All Tony did was nod.

He felt for Steve probably more than anyone else around the table, for underlying reasons as well. Pepper had sat down with Tony one day, while the Avengers Tower was being re modeled, and basically told him to tell her the truth. Tony had no clue what she was talking about, and she had sighed, and asked him one question.

"Tony, are you gay?" Tony had been taken aback, wildly surprised by the question.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." He said shortly, going back down to his notes, wondering if he really was that transparent. He'd been _experimenting_ since college with boys and girls and he quickly came to the realization that he would rather pursue a relationship with a man, and girls to him are pretty things to have next to him.

He didn't want it public knowledge, that he was gay. I mean, god, can't the man have _some_ privacy? So he took on this playboy persona along with a flirtatious, then later serious, relationship with Pepper. Who apparently had known the whole time? So _that's_ why she said they would be better off as friends and coworkers. _Wow._ Pepper had given him a look and told him to tell her the truth. Tony had sighed and nodded. "Yeah, yeah I am." Pepper had just smiled and shook her head, then continued with whatever conversation they were having before.

So as they all sat there, feeling for Steve, Tony couldn't help but leave the room. The overwhelming theme of sadness was too much for him right then, and he excused himself to go up to the landing on the roof, sitting with his back against the glass wall, staring at the machine he uses on a regular basis to get the suit off. As he stared, he couldn't help but think of Steve.

Steve and his big blue eyes that shone almost every day, his blatant disregard to learn _anything_ about pop culture, his laugh, his heart. The way his skin felt in his as he led him by the wrist to see the articles. Tony sighed, closing his eyes and letting his head lean back and hit the glass behind. He knew he had feelings for Steve, he knew the first time he saw him, but he never acted on them. He told Pepper, but that was it. He couldn't do anything else about it. The guy was from the 40s. It was _illegal_ then. _But times are different, _he thought to himself. _He's different._

He was snapped out of his thoughts by someone tapping on the glass gently. Tony cracked one eye open to see Natasha. "Hey," she whispered. "Can we talk?" Tony nodded, still silent, patting the ground beside him. Natasha sat down next to him, closer than usual, because it was _cold_ up there at night.

"What's on your pretty little Russian mind?" He asked. Natasha shrugged.

"Wanted to talk to you…about your feelings." She said, smirking a little. Tony groaned.

"No. no we're not doing this. Pepper told you didn't she? Son of a bitch, no." Tony said, shaking his head. Natasha put her hand on top of Tony's, the touch successfully shutting Tony up.

"Yes she told me. But why is it such a big deal? Just talk to him about it." Tony scoffed.

"Yeah, like I can talk to him about this. Natasha, did you _forget_ when he's from? The 40s. You know what they did to gays in the forties? _Arrested_ them. He'd probably throw his shield at me if I told him I had feelings for him." He mumbled. He was going to _kill_ Pepper. Natasha put a hand on Tony's shoulder and squeezed.

"I promised I wouldn't say anything, but talk to him. You'd be surprised." She said standing up. Then she smirked mischievously. "And since when does Tony Stark back down from the impossible?" She walked back into the house, knowing that lit the fire under his butt.

Tony had stared after her, letting the whole thing sink in. _I promised I wouldn't say anything…._ To who? To Steve? What did Steve say to her that no one else could know? "Jesus Christ now I'm paranoid." Tony grumbled. Then he realized what she ended the conversation with, and she had a point. Tony stood up too and fixed his shirt a little. It was time to court Steve Rogers.

* * *

The wake was family only and a week after the death. The funeral was the day after. The six adults were dressed in their nicest black clothes, taking the same cars from their trip to the hospital. When they got to the burial site, the funeral was being held completely outdoors, They all got out and walked carefully over the dewy grass and over to where there was a tent set up with folding chairs all waiting around a raised casket with Peggy's picture on top in a gold frame. Steve scanned the small bunches of people for Caden, and he saw her walking with a priest and two adults on either side of her. Her black cotton dress with a lace like pattern had thin straps, as wide as two fingers. Her jet black hair that ended around her elbows was lightly curled and brought up a little bit at places. Her clear cerulean blue eyes were lined with red, the tears obvious, and she had a blackened tissue in her hand, obviously having used it to wipe away her eyeliner and mascara filled tears.

There weren't enough chairs, so most people stood. As the priest began Steve looked around at the crowd, his eyes stopping on Caden again. He wanted to make sure she was doing alright. She hadn't even moved in yet and he already cared for her as if she was one of his own. Which technically, now she was. He watched her carefully. He saw her listen to the priest, biting her lip to keep the tears that were already falling from falling faster and harder. As he watched her he watched her will slowly start to break, and Steve remembered something from a conversation they had together. _I don't cry in public, other people watching me cry feels weird. _So Steve excused himself from the small group of non-family members _in_ the crowd and made his way toward her. He gently grabbed her elbow, guiding her to the outskirts of the group, far enough that no one could see, and held her close, letting her break down and sob into his chest, staining the shirt he wore with her tears but he didn't care.

He rubbed her back soothingly, letting her sob. He didn't ask questions, just wrapped his arms around her shoulders and let her wrap her arms tight around his waist and cry. He stroked her hair and watched from a distance as everyone started to say their last goodbyes to Peggy and dropping flowers on the casket. He saw Tony making his way over to the two of them. Caden sniffed and turned so her arms were still around Steve but she was facing towards Tony, who offered her a flower, a white daisy.

She tried forcing a smiled and took it, letting go of Steve, and letting the two men guide her towards the casket. As they walked, Steve's hand on her back, and Tony's hovering in front of his, Tony took that time to look at Steve. His stoic face looked calm, but his eyes gave him away. The sadness in them made Tony pat his back, making him turn. "You're a natural at this dad thing," He said softly before letting Steve and Caden step forward and lay their flowers down. After they did, Caden had turned her face into Steve's side, hands clutching the fabric of his shirt as her shoulders shook with more tears.

After the casket was lowered and people started to leave, Tony motioned for the other five to come over, and when they did Steve smiled faintly at them before stepping back and looking at Caden. "Ready to go?" He asked. Caden sniffed and nodded, going towards the two adults she had walked in with and coming back with two wheeling suitcases, which Thor took both of and started towards the car. Tony turned to her in shock.

"Is that all you have?" He asked. Caden looked at Thor's retreating back and nodded.

"Pretty much," she said. Bruce cleared his throat.

"We should go guys," He said. Everyone nodded and Steve wrapped his arm around Caden's shoulder again.

"Come on, let's go home."


End file.
